Guilty
by Sunnyside51
Summary: Little feet, midnight snacks, and the guilt of a spiteful twin. A follow-up one-shot of my Bonnie/Alaric story.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Legacies.**

**Follow-up to my first story Merciless Beauty.**

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Two pairs of feet crept up the stairs of the Salvatore School. They shuffled down the hallways toward the girls dormitories and stopped in front of their desired location, room twenty three. The bedroom door groaned as it was slowly opened, letting light from the hallway spill into the room. Both intruders headed for the bed furthest from the window to hover over the form of Lizzie Saltzman.

The larger silhouette poked her in the face.

"Lizzie."

Another poke.

Lizzie let out an irritated sound before finally turning on her other side.

"She's not waking up. What do we do?"

The smaller figure crawled on top of her and pushed her right eyelid up.

"Lizzie?"

Lizzie's eye tried to focus just as she registered a small weight on her abdomen. "Please let this be a dream." She groaned.

She opened her other eye and realized she was face to face with her little brother.

"Rudy?" She asked.

"Hi." He gave her a cute smile, the dimple in his right cheek became more prominent.

"What do you want?" she let out an exhausted breath and closed her eyes.

"Can you make me a sandwich?"

She was wide awake then. She sat up and leaned on her elbows. "Excuse me?"

"Me too." She finally notice her younger sister sitting cross-legged at the end of her bed.

Still groggy from sleep, she was very confused. "What is going on?"

Rudy moved to sit beside her as Kerissa took over the conversation. "Rudy woke me up because he was hungry, but I'm not allowed to use the knives without supervision so we came to get you."

"Why me? Why not Josie?"

Kerissa's face scrunched up. "Josie doesn't know how to make them like you do."

A small smile formed on Lizzie's face at the compliment. "I do make a great sandwich."

She finally moved to get up and put her slippers on. "Alright, let's go."

x

"Do you guys want ham or turkey?" Lizzie asked as she walked toward the fridge.

"Turkey."

"Turkey please."

She took out everything she needed and laid it out on one of the prepping stations.

Kerissa spoke up. "Why do you hate Penny?"

Lizzie looked up in surprise. "You mean Penelope?"

"Yeah. Why do you hate her?"

"Why are you bringing this up."

"What else is there to talk about at midnight?"

"I don't hate her." Kerissa gave her a look. "Okay, I hate her, but only because I think Josie could do a whole lot better."

"Penny's really nice though. She makes Josie really happy, she helps me with my homework when mommy can't and she helped Rudy when he scraped his elbow last week." Kerissa listed three of her reasons.

"Penelope and I have a very….complicated history." Lizzie declared with a grimace. She turned around to get two plates. "You shouldn't get too attached to her."

She sat their plates down and started to cut Rudy's sandwich in half.

"But we already picked out our halloween costumes. She's gonna be a cat and I'm gonna dress up as her!"

"That'll be the scariest costume I've ever seen." Lizzie muttered.

Kerissa deflated. "If she makes Josie happy, shouldn't you be happy for her?" she asked quietly.

Lizzie looked down. "Why are you making me feel bad?"

"You wouldn't feel bad if you stopped putting Josie in the middle of your problems." A smug look appeared on her face.

"You know, this sandwich can go right in the trash." Kerry's face dropped, unamused.

All three of them turned their heads when they heard a scratching noise near the door. Josie slowly edged in before looking at them in relief.

"Hi Jojo!" Rudy yelled with a mouthful of turkey.

"Hey Rue."

"Josie, what are you doing up?" Lizzie walked around the counter.

"I woke up and you weren't in bed, so I came to look for you. What are you doing down here?"

"They woke me up to make them something to eat." She turned and gave her younger siblings a light glare. "Which they will not do again."

When she turned back to Josie, she was shifting from one foot to the other. "What?"

"Can I have a sandwich too?"

Lizzie gave her twin a soft look. "Of course you can."

X

She expected to be asleep soon after her rendevouz in the kitchen, but after staring at the ceiling for fifteen minutes, she decided to address what was keeping her awake. Turning over in her bed, she looked at Josie.

"Jo." she whispered. Moments passed before a quiet voice answered her.

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry. For the way I talk about you and Penelope. You don't deserve that and I want you to be happy."

Josie turned her head to look at her sister. "Why the change of heart?"

"Kerry. She's very observant for a five year old. Tomorrow, I will find Penelope and try to make peace with her. For you."

Josie got out of bed to climb into Lizzie's. "Thank you." She said as she gave her a hug. Lizzie hugged her just as tight. "You're welcome."

X

Josie was eating her breakfast and reading a book when she felt a pair of hands run over her shoulders.

"The world must be ending because your sister came up to me this morning and called a truce."

Josie turned her head and saw the smirking face of Penelope Park.

"Do you have any idea what happened to her?"

"Apparently, Kerry can be very nosy when she wants to be. Lizzie apologized and said that she was happy as long as I was happy." She took Penelope's hand in hers and laced their fingers together.

"Is this change going to be permanent?" Penelope asked.

"I'm not worried about that right now. I just want to enjoy this. What I have with you right now."

"If we're doing that, how about a picnic by the lake this weekend?" Penelope suggested. "I'll bring all your favorites."

Josie gave her a big, toothy smile. "That sounds perfect."

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**I thought it would be cute to give Balaric a couple of kids.**


End file.
